How to Create a Screenshot

Easy Way to Capture a Screen Shot

Recipes, news stories, book reviews—you name it. Sometimes the easiest way to save a copy of something is to simply take a snapshot of your screen.

Snipping Tool captures a screen shot of anything on your desktop, like a picture or a section of webpage. Snip a whole window, a rectangular section of the screen, or draw a freehand outline with your mouse. Then you can annotate, save, or e-mail the image using buttons right in the Snipping Tool window.

You can capture any of the following types of snips:

Free-form Snip. Draw a free-form shape around an object.

Rectangular Snip. Drag the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.

Window Snip. Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture.

Full-screen Snip. Capture the entire screen.

Open Snipping Tool by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Snipping Tool, and then, in the list of results, click Snipping Tool.

Click the arrow next to the New button, select Free-form Snip, Rectangular Snip, Window Snip, or Full-screen Snip from the list, and then select the area of your screen that you want to capture.

Snipping Tool

The captured area of the screen appears in the mark-up window, where you can write or draw on it, save it, and send it to someone in e‑mail.

When you capture a snip, it is automatically copied to the Clipboard so that you can quickly paste it into a document, e‑mail, or a presentation.

You can also save a snip as an HTML, PNG, GIF, or JPEG file. After you capture a snip, you can save it by clicking the Save Snip button in the mark-up window.